Dan Loeb Just Gave A Rare Interview And Revealed A New Position In FedEx

Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, the founder of $14 billion Third
Point LLC, wrapped up an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the
Dealbook Conference.

The combination of Loeb's recent press headlines and the
infrequent nature of his interviews made this event closely
watched.

Loeb has been in the news a lot lately. He's been going after
Sony and Sotheby's. He was also the subject of a
brutal Vanity Fair profile by William D. Cohan.

Today, Loeb came off as deferential and well-polished.

He also exhibited remarkable composure as Sorkin gave him more
than enough opportunities to gloat about his investment
successes. In particular, he was asked to comment on Bill Ackman,
Sony and George Clooney. In every instance, Loeb took the
high ground and even commented that he and Clooney probably share
a lot of similar views in what they both want for Sony.

Here's the recap from the one on one with Loeb:

Sorkin began the conversation by talking about activist investing
and whether it's a good thing for society.

He said both are at the cornerstone of what makes this country
great. Loeb said that his efforts have bought a sense of
accountability at the companies his hedge fund has been involved
in.

"I can't think of a time where we've misstepped," he said, adding
that there probably will be at some point.

Sorkin asked Loeb about Bill Ackman, the founder of Pershing
Square, and his stake in JCPenney, which was a failure.

"Certainly, a messy situation. Bill has had a lot of real
successes in activism. General Growth. Canadian Pacific..."
Loeb added that JCPenney's board also had a role in the
retailer's whole mess.

Sorkin said Loeb is being "very nice" to Bill. The audience
chuckled.

The conversation quickly changed to Sony.

"I don't think of us as going against Sony. I would think of our
model as much more like a private equity investor....We have a
role. It's expressed as a shareholder, not as a director.
So far, we've had a very good relationship with Sony," Loeb
said explaining that he's met with the CEO a couple of times.

Sorkin then quoted George Clooney's harsh comments about Loeb
regarding his involvement in Sony.

"That sounds a little hyperbolic," Loeb said.

"Look, I get where George is coming from...actually I'd love to
meet him sometime. We'd actually agree more than we'd disagree
about the company...I think we both want the same thing. We want
less money spent on overhead and more money spent on making
movies."

Sorkin asked Loeb about the Vanity Fair piece.
Sorkin called it the "elephant in the room.

"I haven't read it," Loeb said.

Sorkin said he didn't believe him.

"There have been a few snippets," Loeb replied.

Sorkin told Loeb about the part of the feature involving his
relationship with Bill Ackman over his investment with
Herbalife.

In February both Loeb and Ackman attended Vanity
Fair’s Oscar party in Los Angeles. A person there reported
that Ackman went up to Loeb, said hello, then added about
Herbalife, “Look, you really shouldn’t have done that,” to which
Loeb replied, “Why? Why shouldn’t I have done that?” Ackman said,
“It was really wrong.” Loeb replied,“No, why? I made $50
million. What’s wrong with that?” The two men no
longer speak.

"Let's be clear about a couple things. I have a fiduciary
duty to earn a rate of return for my investors. My fiduciary duty
is to my investors, not Bill Ackman. An opportunity was
created where we thought a sell off in Herbalife was overdone. I
spent my Christmas vacation last year analyzing the
company..."

After Ackman presented his big Herbalife short,
Loeb snapped
up an 8.2% stake in the company. He also called Ackman's
pyramid scheme accusation "preposterous." He gave Herbalife's
stock a price target of $55
to $68 a share .

He exited the position sometime in the first quarter of this year
for a nice profit when it was around $44 a share.

"There was
nothing disingenuous about our price target... There is no
responsibility to hold a stock until it hits that price target,"
he explained.

"We decided to take the money and run. There was no pump and
dump."

As for stepping down from Yahoo!, Loeb said that they had reached
their price target.

Sorkin is asking Loeb about his letters he writes. Loeb has
a reputation for his poison pen and the letters make for great
reads.

"For the most part, we carry on discussions with management
teams. There's generally a period of explaining what our
intentions are..."

Loeb met with Fred Smith in Memphis the other week.
He's the CEO of FedEx, Sorkin pointed out.

Loeb
is an owner of FedEx and he "likes" the
CEO.

The stock shot
up.

Yahoo! Finance

Sorkin changed the conversation to Loeb's support of education
reform. The American Federation of Teachers, a large teacher's
union, put Loeb on a "blacklist" earlier this year with a bunch
of other fund managers telling pension trustees that shouldn't
invest with them.

Loeb said he'll continue to advocate for kids, though.

Then, Sorkin talked to Loeb about the time he almost blew up in
2008.

Loeb shared an interested anecdote about one of his hedge fund
manager friends who withdrew $50,000 cash from an ATM because he
was fearful that ATMs would stop working.